The recent advances in stem cell biology and tissue engineering have paved the way to the development of a new field in biomedicine, regenerative medicine. This approach seeks to circumvent the shortage of organs for transplantation, by combining the above-mentioned technologies in an attempt to replace diseased or absent tissue. The heart represents an attractive candidate for these emerging t...

Improvements in immunosuppression have reduced acute kidney allograft rejection and clinicians are now seeking ways to prolong allograft survival to 20 years and beyond. The primary cause of kidney allograft loss is still chronic rejection, followed by death with a functioning allograft and primary kidney disease recurrence. Thus, overcoming kidney allograft rejection remains the most important...

The metabolic changes in the homografted canine heart were studied in order to define the biochemical alterations accompanying homograft rejection. In several experiments, homograft rejection was accelerated by prior sensitization of the host animal. The homografted heart released pyruvate and lactate as well as malic dehydrogenase and aldolase. Extraction of glucose by the graft usually remain...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is described by a disruption in the normal function of the brain due to an injury following a trauma, which can potentially cause severe physical, cognitive, and emotional impairment. The use of human stem cells and self-assembling peptide scaffolds suggest huge potential for application in the treatment of TBI. In the present study, we surveyed the beneficial effec...

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been recently received increasing attention for cell-based therapy, especially in regenerative medicine. However, the low survival rate of these cells restricts their therapeutic applications. It is hypothesized that autophagy might play an important role in cellular homeostasis and survival. This study aims to investigate the regenerative potentia...